Zurich Classic Seung-Yul Noh Win

Posted at April 27, 2014

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans from TPC Louisiana provided some great viewing with some amazing golf. However, looking at the leaderboard and the 5 leading players, it certainly felt that this weekend emulated what has been happening throughout 2014; many more unfamiliar names are winning the titles and securing top 5 finishes.

There has been a real wave of new faces taking to the spotlight in 2013/2014 with notable maiden wins for a number of 'low-profile' professional golfers including Kevin Stadler, Matt Every and Chesson Hadley; many more rookies are also competing for top-ten and top-five PGA Tour finishes. It really does seem that the familiar major winning faces of Tiger Woods and fans' favourite Phil Mickelson, who have won 121 PGA Tour events between them, have slowed in their successes during recent injury-stricken seasons, thus giving the young guns a greater opportunity to shine. This weekend saw Seung-Yul Noh become the seventh first-time PGA Tour winner this season and this is only set to continue throughout the season, where we will see more inspirational golf from the likes of Jordan Spieth (20), Russell Henley (25) and Patrick Reed (23). It almost feels like Rory McIlroy is now one of the more experienced players in the field, which is a bizarre statement for a player aged just 24. The likelihood of someone under the age of 25 winning one on the three remaining majors this year is very likely.

Another new face for the casual golf fan this weekend was South Korean rising Nike Golf star Seung-Yul Noh, who proved too strong for the more familiar faces of Keagan Bradley (-13), Peter Hanson (-12), Justin Rose (-13) and Paul Casey (-12). Seung-yul Noh sported a Tiger Woods style red Nike victory shirt on the final day, which may be an indication that the old guard is changing. This win for the 22-year old means he is the first person outside of the United States or Australia to win on the PGA Tour this season, whilst we all hope to be seeing some British and Irish players come good with a victory soon enough. Nike will be expecting to see more from Seung-Yul Noh who was noted by Sky Sports’ pundits as a stellar iron player who can also hit it very long, certainly one of the many youngsters to watch this year and next.

Let us know what your opinion is. Has Tiger Woods won his final major? Will we see a player under 25 winning a major this year? Who would you pick out as 'one to watch' this season?